John Sweeney, an award-winning broadcaster and investigative reporter, has covered wars and revolutions in more than 60 countries, including Chechnya, Romania, Bosnia, Iraq, Algeria and Burundi. In 2001, he joined the BBC, where he has produced widely-acclaimed stories on subjects ranging from post-war chaos in Iraq (a BBC2 film in 2004) to the Turkish refusal to allow the U.S. military to enter Iraq from its territory (a Newsnight film). Earlier this year, his "Sweeney Investigates" series aired a major piece on one of the Russian oligarchs. Sweeney's awards include the Royal Television Society prize (2004) for "Angela's Hope," a BBC1 documentary about a woman wrongly convicted of murdering her three babies; a Sony Gold award (2003) for Best Radio News program; and the Amnesty International prize (2001) for "Victims of the Torture Train," about human rights abuses in Chechnya. He also won an Emmy and a Royal Television Society prize (2000) for programs about the massacre in Little Krusha, Kosovo. From 1989-2000, Sweeney worked as a reporter for The Observer newspaper, and, in 1998, was named Journalist of the Year by What The Papers Say, one of the longest running programs on British television. He is the author of three books, including "The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu," and "Trading with the Enemy: How Britain Armed Iraq."

contact: john.sweeney@bbc.co.uk